"The Painted iD," currently based in Ventura, California, have just released their second full-length disc. When you're talking about female-fronted folk-rock bands, there's always a comparison to "10,000 Maniacs" somewhere in the works. However, that won't happen for this particular record.

The music itself is good, in the way that things you sense going somewhere are good. In Peter DeBaets and Ricardo Belled, there's a very solid, tuned-in, melodic section. Equally proficient is drummer Barry Schapiro, who is in the mix just enough to demonstrate his ability to catch the right up-and-downbeats without distracting the listener. Vocalist Tori Solomon has a rich voice, a good sense of the hooks in the music, and a quality of steadied emotion that serves her well by never getting out of control or off the mark.

The problem I have is that while the various bandmembers' positions are so strong, the material seems so weak. The liner notes stated that additional percussion in-studio was provided by Mike Faue, and "Atmospherics" were lent by Jon Mathias (who, called upon in the press kit, has worked with Dire Straits and Tom Petty, but it doesn't say doing what - possibly as engineer?). I'm not sure what these last two mean, unless they speak to the numerous additions of all kinds of little studio tricks that the band wouldn't have otherwise had access to. These tricks aren't occasional, they are constant, obviously added for "effect," but instead make the music sound a bit contrived, a little too precious, trying a little too hard to add an "extra something," to make up for what? I wonder. . .

While the music is catchy and the players good, I found the songwriting a little undeveloped, suffering from a lack of maturity, and very self- conscious. It started well, with the energetic "Rici," but the lyrics "Let's stand together, let's make crazy music, get lost in the rhythms," didn't make it more listenable. Other tracks are fraught with similar cliches. "Those streets that wind are the ties that bind our lives together, those streets that wind are the ties that bind our hearts forever. . ." (from "Ties That Bind").

The highest point of this record is an energetic outing by guitarist Peter DeBaets, who takes a turn writing and singing on his own with a track called "Chill." His vocal style, and the composition of the piece, are reminiscent of The Police. The metaphoric retelling of an emergence from depression, loaded with images of snow, icicles, and the trappings of a cold environment, the lyrical content is a notch better ". . .just for a moment I stumble outside, hope for a moment to turn this frozen tide/ Could it be summer. . .," but still, there are more studio synth tricks here where I think the song would have stood just as tall on its own.

The bottom line is that this band has laid some great groundwork, but haven't found trust enough in their collective direction. I hope they find the confluence point of the kind of material they write vs. what they want to write. The uncertainty is distracting and doesn't do them justice. Lyrically, I hope that their material eventually rises to the next level, both in subject matter and in stylistic terms, because here they cover no new ground, break no molds, or speak in a different tongue than any I've ever heard before. This may be due to a youthful sense of songwriting, or a youthful view of their own abilities. Good songwriting doesn't have to include Tori Amos-like theatrics and wild non-sequiturs, or Jewel-like simplistic sugarcoating and communal weeping. If they would just trust the instincts that echo throughout this record (which, I repeat, are quite good), and push their little envelope a little further, as it were, I don't think they'll be disappointed. I certainly wouldn't have been this time out had that been the case.